Abstract

Food is not only fundamental to our existence, its consumption,
handling or even the mere sight of its also brings us
immense joy. Over the years, technology has played a crucial
part in supporting and enriching food-related practices, beginning
from how we grow, to how we cook, eat and dispose
of food. All these practices have a significant impact not
only on individuals but also on the surrounding ecologies
and infrastructures, often discussed under the umbrella term
of Human-Food Interaction (HFI).
This article aims to offer the reader an overview of the
existing research in this space and to guide further its exploration.
We illustrate how HFI builds on recent trends
within HCI. We position this growth across four phases of
HFI, namely, Growing, Cooking, Eating and Disposal. We
categorize and disseminate the existing works across each of
these phases to reveal a rich design space and to highlight
the underexplored areas that interaction designers might
find intriguing to investigate.
Using the design space, we articulate a set of opportunities
that emphasize particular features the technology, especially
hardware, has yet to offer to drive the human-food
interaction field forward. We highlight the design space for
designing novel interactions with technologies by taking motivation
from traditional food practices related to cooking
and eating food.
Finally, we introduce Human Food Practices (HFP) an
emerging field of investigation that concerns itself with the
formation and transformation of practices as they are enacted
within the dynamics, motivations and perceptions of
societal norms associated with food.

Human-Food Interaction

Food is not only fundamental to our existence, its consumption, handling or even the mere sight of its also brings us immense joy. Over the years, technology has played a crucial part in supporting and enriching food-related practices, beginning from how we grow, to how we cook, eat and dispose of food. All these practices have a significant impact not only on individuals but also on the surrounding ecologies and infrastructures, often discussed under the umbrella term of Human-Food Interaction (HFI).

This monograph provides an overview of the existing research in this space and a guide to further its exploration. The authors illustrate the growth in research across four phases of HFI, namely, Growing, Cooking, Eating and Disposal; categorizing the existing works across each of these phases to reveal a rich design space and that highlights the underexplored areas that interaction designers might find intriguing to investigate.

Human-Food Interaction offers a first of its kind overview of research in this fascinating interdisciplinary field and will be of interest to students and researchers working in many areas of Human-Computer Interaction.